Technical Support Bulletin: Benefits of SolidWorks Professional and SolidWorks Premium
By Josh Altergott

SolidWorks Professional and Office Premium have several Add-In tools that make them a great benefit for every day use. From a Tech Support perspective here is a listing of those Add-Ins and some of the most common things that we hear from customers who are utilizing them and what those customers find useful with those Add-Ins.

SolidWorks Toolbox

1. Customization of hardware to include everything from material type and finish to part number and the ability to choose the parts from the library based upon those properties.
2. Hardware recognition, that is the ability to send another SolidWorks user an assembly with out the fastener part files and if they are using Toolbox it will recognize the size and type and create the correct configuration of that fastener.
3. O-Ring and Retaining Ring Grooves, you can apply these to any round part based upon your specifications of Standard, Type, and Size.

SolidWorks Animator

1. You have the ability to export any animation to eDrawings.
2. If you create an Exploded Assembly you can animate that process and save that out as an AVI file.
3. Creating an animation is not as hard as every one thinks SW Animator uses a time based slider to control the animation process.

SolidWorks Utilities

1. Compare Tools, there are tools in SW Utilities that allow you to compare features or geometry between your SolidWorks files or even between configurations of those files.
2. Feature Paint, the ability to copy the parameters of one feature to another. You can copy a feature's parameters from one part to another, or within the same part.
3. Simplify, allows you to simplify a part or assemblies geometry by removing "insignificant volume" based on the size of a part or assembly those features can then be suppressed to a derived configuration so you can perform other operations like an analysis with COSMOS or send the simplified file to a customer.

SolidWorks Task Scheduler

1. Batch Printing, you have the ability to print multiple files by selecting multiple drawings for different location or by specifying a specific folder of files to print.
2. Custom Property Mapping, you create a new property or apply an existing custom property to a group of files, by specifying the Name, Type, and Value of the property, and what configuration(s) you would like that applied too.
3. Batch Import/Export, the ability to import or export a group of files.

FeatureWorks

1. You can recognize features based upon Standard or Sheet Metal SolidWorks features.
2. You can group similar features together into a pattern.
3. You have the ability to recognize features Automatically, or Manually.

eDrawings Professional

1. Any eDrawings file you send to someone with just eDrawings has all the capabilities of eDrawings Pro.
2. You have the ability to Measure, Mark Up (red line), or Section the files eDrawings files you create.
3. Ability to publish just the configurations or sheets of a file that you want your customer or vendor to see.

PhotoWorks

1. You can render a model with out lights.
2. PhotoWorks uses Mental Ray as the engine for rendering.
3. With cameras you have the ability to control depth of field.

PDMWorks

1. Easy to Implement and Administer.
2. You can set up controlled access to your SolidWorks files.
3. Fast and easy way of displaying of Where Used, Renaming, etc…

SolidWorks Design Checker

1. Ability to create a standard template for checking all of your SolidWorks files.
2. Check files for consistency before releasing the files to production.
3. Wizard to build the standard.

The following Add In’s are available in SolidWorks Premium along with all of the products listed above.

SolidWorks Routing

1. Ability to create routes for Electrical and Plumbing systems in both rigid and flexible states.
2. Use of Standard Cables, Wires, and Connectors from a library.
3. Use of standard Excel Tables to create your library’s

COSMOS Works Designer

1. Copy materials, boundary conditions and mesh definitions from one study to another.
2. Calculate Free body forces.
3. Remember sensor values at different locations for easy comparison of results.

SolidWorks Motion

1. Auto mapping of mates into motion joints.
2. Auto plotting of results between successive runs.
3. Export motion values into COSMOS for FEA analysis.